1,800 Ohio Inmates Test Positive For Coronavirus

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Every day we’re hearing more and more about COVID-19 is ravaging prisons where inmates are in close quarters, many of them are asymptomatic and where there’s lack of testing and proper medical care to treat them.

In Ohio, state officials are clamoring to contain the coronavirus at a local prison. NPR reports that The Marion Correctional Institution has become a hotbed for COVID-19 with more than 1,800 confirmed cases. NPR reports that there are AT LEAST 1,828 positive inmates and the correctional institution accounts for the majority of cases in Marion County, which leads Ohio in the reported infections.

To date, none of the inmates have died and 667 uninfected inmates are in quarantine.

“Because we are testing everyone — including those who are not showing symptoms — we are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic,” the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said.

“Throughout our mass testing process, we have found many individuals who are testing positive for COVID who are asymptomatic,” JoEllen Smith, correction department spokeswoman, told the Columbus Dispatch.

It’s ironic that coronavirus is running rampant in the Ohio prison. By contrast in New York state, there are reportedly only 1,000 coronavirus cases in the state prison system — and NPR reports that “most of those infections (794) are among staff”.

Marion Correctional Institution’s startling numbers come amid reports that Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine has pledged to reopen the state’s economy on May 1.